2 Critically Burned in Duplex Fire : Escape: The victims ran through the flaming living room. Neighbors aided the firefighters.

Two people were critically injured Saturday morning when they ran through a wall of flames in escaping a burning second-story duplex unit, fire officials said.

Ralph Royston, 35, and Gay Kenyon, 24, suffered second- and third-degree burns and were airlifted to the burn unit at UCI Medical Center in Orange, where they are in critical condition.

The victims had been watching the sun rise in another room when the blaze started in the living room, neighbors and fire officials said. Kenyon lives at the duplex and Royston, her boyfriend, had been visiting.

When paramedics were treating both victims outside the building shortly after 6:30 a.m., one firefighter said Kenyon’s condition was worsening. Royston, overhearing, sobbed: “Please, don’t let her die.”

Witnesses said they were alerted to the fire by screams coming from the duplex. Karen Gamby, who lives across the street, said: “It was about 6:10, and I had just gotten out of the shower when I heard some woman screaming bloody murder. I called 911 . . . (and) told the operator I thought someone was being killed.”

Gamby then walked outside and saw flames coming from across the street.

Kenyon was the first to escape from the home. She sustained burns on her back and arms when she ran through the blazing living room, firefighters said.

Royston rolled himself in a blanket in a bid to protect himself from the flames, Gamby said.

When firefighters arrived, neighbors were already using garden hoses in an attempt to douse the flames. Firefighters told neighbors to get as much bottled water as they could find to apply to the victims’ burns.

The cause of the fire was under investigation Saturday, but investigators think that it began accidently inside the living room’s fireplace.

The blaze caused about $85,000 in damage to the second-story unit of a wood-frame duplex in the 100 block of 13th Street. No other structures were damaged.

Kathleen Cha, spokeswoman for the Orange County Fire Department, said that the victims were awake and outside the living room when the blaze started just after 6 a.m.

They apparently thought that the only way out of the house was through the flames, Cha said.

It took 26 firefighters 20 minutes to put out the fire.

Fire investigators found a smoke detector in the duplex but are unsure whether it was in working order, Cha said.

Staff writer Sonni Efron contributed to this story.